Final: Ducks 7, Bruins 5 - Ducks score seven goals, Bruins lose sixth-straight game

The early drought for the Boston Bruins continue with a 7-5 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.

The Bruins are now on a six-game losing streak, but tonight's loss isn't due to the lack of offense. In fact, it was the opposite.

Boston and Anaheim played with a lot of intensity through the first 20 minutes. Three minutes into the game, Casey Mittelstadt put the Bruins on the board with a rebound goal in transition.

The Ducks responded midway into the first period with a ricochet goal from Drew Helleson. Anaheim pressured Boston in their defensive zone, and a shot from Helleson hit off Charlie McAvoy and landed in the net.

Despite both teams being tied heading into the first intermission, the Bruins played more time in their offensive zone and generated a good amount of shots against Petr Mrazek. 

In the second period, the Bruins and Ducks continued to trade goals. Morgan Geekie scored the first goal of the period with a wrist shot at the top of the slot, but the Ducks responded with a wrist shot from Cutter Gauthier that went between Joonas Korpisalo's five-hole.

Four minutes later, Jacob Trouba gave Anaheim their first lead. With the Ducks cycling the puck through Boston's defensive zone, Trouba crashed the net, picked up a rebound, and fired a shot past Korpisalo to make it 3-2 Anaheim. 

Fortunately, the Bruins went on the power play with a little over two minutes remaining in the period. 19 seconds into the man-advantage, Mason Lohrei fired a shot from the point to tie it up again. 

Momentum should've been on Boston's side going into the third period, but a disappointing start put the Bruins in a hole. Viktor Arvidsson received an early penalty, and the Ducks scored on the power play from Mikael Grandlund. Troy Terry set up the entire play by dangling around Boston's defense and finding Granlund who scored on an open net. 

The Ducks added onto their lead with a goal from Sam Colangelo, and the Bruins found themselves down two goals with the clock ticking.

Despite this, the Bruins found a way to tie the game yet again. With roughly five minutes remaining in the game, David Pastrnak scored a power play goal to cut Anaheim's lead to one goal.

20 seconds later, Nikita Zadorov rushed the puck all the way into Anaheim's territory, and he dished a pass to Geekie who scored his second goal of the game making it a 5-5 game. 

The TD Garden erupted following Boston's consecutive goals, but they quickly got silenced with another goal from Anaheim. Terry gave the Ducks their sixth goal of the game 30 seconds after Geekie's tying goal, and that became the dagger for the Bruins.

Anaheim scored on the empty net, and they finished the game with a 7-5 victory.

This was another frustrating watch for Bruins games. At one point, they doubled the Ducks in shots on goal, yet the Ducks finished with six goals against Korpisalo. Too many times tonight the Bruins allowed a goal right after they scored, and the lack of resilience showed in this game.

Boston will now face the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday. Puck drop will be at 3 p.m.

______________________

WHO: Bruins (3-5-1) at Ducks (3-2-1)
WHEN: 7 p.m.
WHERE: TD Garden, Boston
TV: NESN
RADIO: 98.5-FM The Sports Hub

LIVE BOX SCORE

PROJECTED LINES

Boston

Geekie - E. Lindholm - Pastrnak 

Mittelstadt - Zacha - Arvidsson 

Jeannot - Minten - Viel 

Eyssimont - Kuraly - Kastelic

Lohrei - McAvoy

Zadorov - Peeke 

Callahan - Jokiharju

Swayman

Korpisalo

Ducks

Gauthier - Carlsson - Killorn

Vatrano - McTavish - Sennecke

Nesterenko - Granlund - Terry 

Johnston - Poehling - Colangelo

Lacombe - Helleson

Zellweger - Trouba

Mintyukov - Gudas 

Mrazek

Dostal

PREGAME NOTES

The Boston Bruins look to snap their five-game losing streak with a home game against the Anaheim Ducks.

Hampus Lindholm will miss his third straight game and sixth this season. Lindholm suffered an undisclosed lower-body injury in the second game of the season. Michael Callahan takes Lindholm's spot on defense.

Jordan Harris is on the IR. It’s unclear what Harris's injury is, per MassLive.